Home › Seven Weeks' Menus › Waldorf Salad
Waldorf Salad
1 cup sliced apples 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1 cup celery diced 1/2 cup walnut meats, broken in pieces 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup mayonnaise or boiled dressing Pour lemon juice over sliced apples. Mix lightly, apples, celery and nuts, being careful not to crush fruit, sprinkle with salt and add dressing.
A four-ingredient salad where technique matters more than quantity. The whole recipe hinges on the lemon juice going onto the apples first.
- Lemon juice firstToss the apple the moment it is cut, before you touch the celery or nuts. It is there to stop browning, and a delay of even a few minutes shows in the finished bowl.
- Apple choiceThe recipe says only "sliced apples" and does not specify whether to peel; peeled is a reasonable reading. A firm, tart-sweet variety holds its shape under dressing; a soft mealy apple collapses into the mayonnaise. Cut slices thick, or dice, to survive the mixing.
- A cup of dressing is generousOne cup of mayonnaise to two and a half cups of solids gives a heavily coated salad. Start with half and add more to taste if you want the fruit to read as fruit.
- Boiled dressingThe alternative given is a cooked dressing thickened with egg and flour and sharpened with vinegar, not a boiled mayonnaise. It is tangier and lighter than mayonnaise.
- Raw egg in homemade mayonnaiseIf you make the mayonnaise rather than buying it, use pasteurized eggs, particularly if serving anyone pregnant, elderly or immune-compromised. Commercial jarred mayonnaise is made with pasteurized egg already.
- WalnutsBroken by hand rather than chopped, so the pieces stay large enough to bite. Toasting them briefly is not in the original but improves the flavor considerably; cool them fully before mixing.
- Yield and servingMakes about four moderate servings. Dress it no more than an hour before the table or the celery weeps and the apple softens; serve on crisp lettuce if you want to follow period practice.
The salad is generally traced to Oscar Tschirky, the maitre d'hotel of the original Waldorf in New York, who put it on the menu in the mid-1890s. In its earliest published form it was only apples, celery and mayonnaise -- the walnuts that now define the dish were a later addition, and by the time books like this one appeared they were taken for granted.